Chapter One
by Wolf-of-Words
Summary: Each book starts with chapter one, and finshes when the story is over, but there is much to be told in between. Unconnected drabbles.
1. the fallible

A/N: Thought I'd give a drabble corner a try. I've got lots of drabbles, and some're too darn short to post by themselves. This makes it easier. xD Characters'll vary and so will word count, and probably rating and genre, too. xD I'm not very consistant. Hopefully some will be better than others, anyway. On with it.

Title: The Fallible.

Characters: Allen.

Word Count: 159.

Rating: PG.

Time: Ten minutes. At night, falling asleep.

Warnings: None, other than a slightly depressing Future!Allen. :D

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

It's dark. Not black-dark. Empty-dark, and Allen doesn't know why.

Darkness is unknowing, darkness is smothering and cold and darkness held no color, _so how could he tell, black or white?_ Darkness is instinctually frightening—things lurked, demons skulked…

_(Tick-tock,_

_Hip-scop_

_This game's about to stop)_

Hazy eyes pleading now, expression desperate, trying to see the faces of potential enemies—has to touch every _one_ to make sure that they're flesh-and-bone-and-blood and not machine-and-gear-and-wire—madness now seeping into his aged and glassy eyes, and in the empty empty darkness, rain comes down.

Drenching. Slowing.

Maybe now he can _hear_ the ting of water against metal instead of using sightless eyes, but he knows it doesn't work that way. Slumps down in the street, his Exorcist uniform nothing but dirty rags, rain pounding pounding downwards always.

_Don't look that way—he's crazy, see that look in his eyes?_

Blinks, and Allen stays in the alleyway, slumped over.

And it's dark.


	2. cat's in the cradle

Title: Cat's in the Cradle

Characters: Tyki, Road.

Word Count: 369.

Rating: Erp. G?

Time: Thirty minutes?

Warnings: None.

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

Tyki Mikk folds Cat's Cradle absently in his hands with red threads; fine, sheer, thin red threads, and they seemed to almost glow in the light of the dim fireplace.

He spins the web of red thread ever tighter and Road, with her candy-sweet voice, declares that she is _bored._

_"So go find something to d_o," Says Tyki Mikk, and the red strands pull tighter, and firelight jumps in the fireplace.

Road huffs a candy-sweet sigh.

_"Won't you play with me?" _Her little voice echoes.

There's the tinkling of something breaking in the background, but Tyki Mikk is preoccupied and Road Kamelot is, too, and neither of them notice, or perhaps neither of them care very much for the shattering of glass or something equally precious.

_"Perhaps,"_ He says, and Tyki Mikk's game at an end, with a single movement of his hand the web is lost, and the red threads lose their shine and the wicked life goes out of them.

_"Come here,"_ He calls to Sister, and, curious, Road Kamelot obeys. _"Give me your hand."_

She gives it to him, intrigued, and Tyki Mikk begins his game of red thread again.

This time the crimson thread spans two hands, and two wicked hearts.

_"They say,"_ Says Tyki Mikk, weaving the thin lines between his and his little sister's fingers until they are so entangled that it looks nigh impossible to undo and escape. _"That this is the oldest game in history. Do you believe that, Road?"_

She ponders for a moment, watching her brother's delft hands, and shakes her head no.

_"Well_ I_ think it's quite dull," _Road says, a candy-sweet smile on her face and a candy-sweet glint in her eye, but now it has gone bitter. _"I can think of __many more games lots more fun than this."_

Tyki Mikk stops his game, shrugging, and with another slight movement of his hand, the thread goes limp and un-knots itself.

_"What a tangled web we weave..."_ Says Tyki, and the crimson dissolves away as if burned like a candle wick. _"When we practice to deceive."_

_"Tyki," _Road whines._ "Play with me now? __A good game__, this time."_

Tyki Mikk smiles at his sister. "_But of course."_


	3. dear kanda

Title: Dear Kanda.

Characters: Mentions of everyone, but mostly Kanda.

Word Count: 200.

Rating: PG.

Time: Thirty minutes? In school.

Warnings: None. Maybe a little spoiler for the China-going?

-This was...from my Creative Writing class. We were supposed to write a "worst-case senario" thing, where everything goes wrong (as a letter), with a little 'ha, ha, see things aren't as bad as they could be, right?' at the end. So...this was spawned. xD Humor, for once. Enjoy.

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

_Dear Kanda,_

The Earl has finally taken over the world. Lavi is in Yugoslavia, and is now writing a book. Lenalee has become the princess of an undersea kingdom, and Komui's now hunting her down, somewhere out at sea, and he's changed his name to Captain Nemo. The Akuma have their own reality show. Road's your baby-sitter, Lavi ate a pie, Tyki's an obsessive gambler (but that's old news), Miranda accidently summoned a hoard of zombies come to ravage the land, and Bookman stole and pawned the sheets off your bed. I broke Mugen-- Lenalee helped-- and Krory buried it in the backyard somewhere next to your puppy. The Earl knit you a nice pair of socks, and Tyki's doing your paperwork from now on. I hope you like the number twelve. Jesdebi have announced that you're their long-lost twin-triplet-brother/sister. Congratulations! Japan sank into the ocean, the Order tilted, and the world ran out of noodles. Or maybe I just ate them all.

Just thought you ought to know.

-_ Beansprout._

PS:

And because this will make you madder than all those things I made up above: I ate your soba. All of it.

Well, I'm off to China for the next six months, see you then! (:D)

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

Somewhere within the Order, there is a very angry samurai with a sword name Mugen, who thinks that the next time Beansprout shows his face, he's going to die.


	4. like a broken clock

Title: Like a Broken Clock

Characters: Miranda, some (inferred) Allen

Word Count: 163.

Rating: G.

Warnings: None, unless you count Miranda herself.

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

Miranda was broken. But it wasn't her fault. She didn't mean to break. It just happened.

Miranda Lotto was little more than a small wound-up toy on the path that she so obediently followed, and like a little wound-up toy she broke. The springs wore down, the cogs ticked out of alignment, rust began to creep over the metal, and she began to wind down. Slower and slower she tread, until, ultimately, she had to stop completely.

And then those words-- those precious, precious words-- were spoken, and like a child who cared just enough about a broken-down wound-up toy to gave it one last wind (just to see what would happen), she could walk again.

And Miranda was whole, fixed, if only for a moment. But no matter how long she walked, the clockwork still was worn, she was still broken, and some part of her always would be.

But even a broken clock is right two times a day. (And Miranda believes that.)


	5. of gold

Title: Of Gold.

Characters: Lavi.

Word Count: 117.

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

Lavi remembered (as he did most everything) a book once, filled with the sort of tales and lore that ought to teach a lesson, but never did-- a tale of a king, granted a wish, and wished that everything he touched turned to gold.

Ultimately, this didn't turn out well, after he turned all his food into bars of the stuff, and his dear daughter into a statue of gold, but Lavi couldn't get past that first part.

To make everything that he touched brilliant, shining, everlasting. Never ravaged by time, unchanging. Frozen. And he'd be free to walk through the hallways of gold, never being anything but Lavi.

_(But those are stories, and these are real.)_


	6. once upon a heart

Title: Once Upon a Heart.

Characters: The Earl.

Word Count: 159.

_-oxoxoxoxo-_

The Earl had a heart once. The Earl might've been human once. (But this had long since been forgotten, and all humanity abandoned.)

The Earl had replaced his weak heart-- just as he tinkered with the Akuma, skeletons made of dark matter-- and his mechanical tick-ticking heart might've needed a ticker tune-up at this point (so thick with black oil and rusted springs).

But he remembered-- the Earl, the smiling devil-- what it was that those little contrived human hearts wanted most--

_powerhappinesslovelosssuccess--_

and he did his best to grant these wishes, but they were, on a whole, sinisterly quid pro quo.

So when he celebrates his creation's birthday, their first day of living in someone else's skin, after granting them the one ability everyone wants (the power to bring back the dead), he spins them a twisted story, one full of love and happiness, and they must all start _"Once upon a Time..."_


End file.
